Like most Indians, Ritwik “Ritu” Chakravarty was raised with a strict notion of traditional gender roles. But for Ritu, who identifies as a trans woman, such rigidity never made sense. “My name, Ritu, means ‘weather’ or ‘season,’” she says today. “And my gender was fluid, changing like the weather.” This openness has allowed Ritu to …
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Masafu Okwara is a lawyer and activist in Kenya who has devoted her life to standing up for queer people who are suffering at the hands of the country’s discriminatory legal system. She works as a program officer for longtime partner National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) in Nairobi, offering free legal aid …
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For years, I spent the High Holidays in Fire Island. Beginning in the mid-1920s, this barrier reef about 60 miles from Manhattan has served as a haven for gay New Yorkers. Although it’s a raucous social scene from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the feverish party vibe dissipates by mid-September when Fire Island Jews—gay and …
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A number of anti-LGBTI organizations participated in a three-day religious freedom conference the State Department held this week in D.C. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Thursday tweeted a picture of Family Research Council President Tony Perkins “welcoming attendees” of a workshop that focused on U.S. government grants.
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Twenty-four years ago, I made a promise that has shaped my life and my work ever since. My beloved partner, Eddie, a talented musician, was dying of AIDS. At the time, we felt powerless, isolated and angry. In 1992, there were no effective medical treatments and there was no hope for recovery. There was too …
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